Biography

Prior to his appointment, Mauro served as the DemocraticIowa Secretary of State from 2006 until 2010. He was first elected to the statewide position in 2006. In January 2009, he announced that he would run for a second term in office.[2] Nearly a year and a half later, however, Mauro narrowly lost in the general election on Tuesday, November 2, 2010 to RepublicanMatt Schultz after receiving forty-seven percent of the vote.

National Popular Vote Act

The National Popular Vote Act (NPVA) is part of a nationwide movement, backed mainly by prominent and influential left-leaning political activists, among them billionaire George Soros, seeking to undermine the electoral college. Rather then push for a federal amendment drastically altering this process or removing it altogether, proponents of NPVA have gone from state-to-state requesting states legislatures to vote in favor of entering an interstate agreement whereby each of the respective individual states is required to "award state electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote plurality, despite the vote in their own states."[4] It is believed that if a coalition of individual states controlling at least 270 electoral votes is formed, it could effectively disable the electoral college without having to drag out a lengthy, and most likely unsuccessful, constitutional amendment process. As of March 2010, only five states, none of them considered 'battleground' or 'swing' states, had entered the compact - New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Washington, and Hawaii, after the state legislature overrode the veto by the governor.

The problem, critics argue, is that this directly undermines the procedural method of making changes to the United States Constitution that the Founding Fathers established over two-hundred years ago. A week after SF 227, the National Popular Vote Plan bill, narrowly passed out the Iowa State Senate State Government Committee 8-7, Mauro voiced his concerns about the measure.[5] Insisting that the electoral college was established in the first place by the Founding Fathers to protect the electoral representation of less populated states, such as Iowa, he cautioned "lawmakers in leading a charge to adopt a resolution that could be detrimental to Iowa and our important role in choosing the President of the United States." He warned the ramifications of passing the National Popular Vote Plan bill would be "dramatic," resulting in Iowa losing its prominent place within future presidential campaigns.[6]

Office commercials

State Republicans accused both State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald and Secretary of State Mauro of using taxpayer funds to promote their re-election campaigns, disguising them as promotions of programs their offices oversee. Beginning on September 27, 2010, Mauro's Office released a radio/television advertisement "intended to help ensure that all Iowans, especially those who are disabled, learn about the Secretary of State’s AutoMARK ballot voting system that allows Iowans living with a disability to vote independently and in private."[7] While programs like this are no doubt important, critics argued, it was the timing of these advertisements in addition to the fact that Mauro introduced himself as the State's Secretary of State that had State Republican leaders upset.

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Mauro is available dating back to 2006. Based on available campaign finance records, Mauro raised a total of $543,696 during that time period. This information was last updated on July 10, 2013.[12]